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One of Scotland's most senior Labour politicians was last night at the centre of a race row after accusing Alex Salmond and the Scottish National Party of stoking anti-English prejudice. Lord George Foulkes first became concerned after hearing that a child of one of his constituents had suffered anti-English taunts. And after anti-English incidents during the 2006 football World Cup, Lord Foulkes is concerned that there may be problems during the rugby World Cup, which starts this weekend.

I've been living up here in Scotland for a year now. I've met some lovely people. And I haven't come across and overt prejudice personally. So, is there anti-English prejudice? You bet! It's like the racism my step-son witnessed in Louisiana a couple of years back. It comes so naturally to some people they don't even realise they are doing it. Like the guy from BT Vision who declared that he 'hated the English' while sipping a cup of tea in my sitting room. 'Really?' , I said, 'all my ancestors are Irish but I was born in London and I'm happy to call myself English'. 'Oh, I don't mean you. It's not the English people I hate, it's the government', says he. 'WHAT?'. 'But they're all fucking Scots', I said. Every time some minister opens his mouth on TV a Scots voice comes out'. And another guy who was in every other respect perfectly friendly, who said, after I referred to myself as a Cockney, 'I hate Cockneys'. You really have to hear it in his particular unattractive accent to get the full flavour of the bigotry. 'Well', I said, 'good job I'm not Jewish then, eh?'

There are plenty of other examples I could cite. You'll rarely hear the Scots refer to 'Britain'. It's Scottish Gas, The Scottish Poppy Appeal, The Scottish Society for the Protection of Animals and so on. As far as I'm concerned the sooner the Scots get independence the better. Then we will all know where we are.

Am I bothered? Let's see: I married a Black woman, I've got two mixed-race/dual heritage daughters, my grandson is a (Black) Muslim, my present wife is Italian, my parents where from Tipperary, I'm a Cockney. Am I bothered? No! I don't give a flying fuck what anyone thinks of me, wherever they come from.